W5PYT ???

I don't remember what Bob looked like when he was younger, but I think this is him in the attached photo. Does anyone know for sure? He looked a lot different when he was older, but I think it's him. I sure looks like 'em. I was digging around and just found it in a drawer with some old QSL cards. I don't even know where I got it.

That is Bob! He had a radio shack in a portable building at the back of his home. The picture shows him in that shack. Notice that his right hand is missing the thumb. Bob had an accident with a gun, and ended up shooting his thumb off. His ability to repair vintage rigs was impaired afterward. Before that he could recap an old radio in an afternoon.

I first met Bob in about 1982/3, and at that time the home shack had become a storage area. There was still a Globe King 500 set up and a home made 80' tower with a plumbers delight 10M 5 element beam up top,

Bob worked for El Paso natural gas Co. They used a series of microwave towers to communicate from. Bob's job was to maintain the microwave communication gear in his region. Bob would accumulate a lot of "windshield time" every day traveling the west Texas roads at a high rate of speed. The closest microwave tower and support building was about a 1/4 mile from his home. He moved his hamshack into that building. Bob believed that keeping the ham gear powered up 24/7 was the best thing. His vintages VFO's were always warmed up with minimal drift.

I first met Bob in about 1982/3, and at that time the home shack had become a storage area. There was still a Globe King 500 set up and a home made 80' tower with a plumbers delight 10M 5 element beam up top.

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That's explains why back during cycles 20 and 21 I always heard Bob working stations on 10-meters. That 5-element beam with the grounded driven element and the Globe King 500 with 300+ watts!

I can remember the first time I ever heard him on 10-meters. I had just signed off after working W1GAC and the next thing I heard was "Brian, this is W5PTY can you hear me?" I could not believe it at the time because it was in the middle of the day and like in July and how in the world was I hearing Bob on 10-meters when he was just in the next state away? It must have been the 5-elements pointed right at me and the power combined. At lot of the time I would hear him via back-scatter when the sun started going down early in the evenings.

Was his "plumbers delight" made from copper tubing or from some other material? I'm sure a lot of people don't really know what those things even are because the driven element is ground. You have to use a special gamma match to couple to the element.

That station at Bob's QTH was not used the whole time I knew him. I first met Bob on 7160. This was back in the fall of 1982 or winter 1983. I had a Viking I and an Arc-5 receiver. Bob invited me over to get something nicer. He gave me an almost fully restored SP-600 which I still own. Bob did mention that beam and King got some 11 duty. Since Bob moved there in the 1950's. who knows if that was CB or Ham. I recall that Astabula Bill, W8VYZ also did some 11m where he talked to his brother.

Bob experimented with antennas a lot. For 10M he put up a 10 element EJ Sterba Curtain broadside NE from Texas. He then added a 10 element reflector to make it uni-directional. He ran a Globe King 400 into that curtain. The rig had a pair of V70D's in push pull modulated by a pair of 5514's. By 1984 I had a Globe King 500 going into a 10M 3 element beam up 30' with an "Armstrong" rotor. When the 10m band was open to New England, I could work Bob on backscatter when I pointed my beam towards New york. He was about S9 to S9+10 on backscatter. The fluttery audio made copy tough at times, but 80% copy was common. Sometimes we had a 3 way, all Texas stations, and all back scatter. The third station was Andy N5JBT. His call is now W5QXX, and Andy must be a 1000 years old. Andy is still occasionally heard.

During those years, Bob would often work Timmy, WA1HLR. Tim who lives up on a mountain in Maine ran a homebrew KW with a 4-1000 modulated by a pair of the same tubes. Tim had a 5 element 10M beam. Those guys could literally wake up the band and put the band to sleep. Between the power, location, and antenna gain, those signals were impressive. I got to visit Tim before his house was burned down from a grass fire. Arson was suspected.

On one visit to Bob I was copying Bob in my mobile. The backscatter audio was low, and I was determined to ask Bob if I could work on that Globe King audio. The GK modulator used a 6L6 to drive the 5514's in push pull. I ended up replacing the 6L6 with a 6CA7, and adding a negative feedback loop. The audio level went WAY up as did the quality. On the way back home, a 250 mile drive, I could copy Bob Q5 from the mobile on backscatter! That extra audio did it.

The Globe King extra audio caused a problem. One day as Bob was talking, the RF stage flashed over, and an arc sustained. Bob never looked up as the V70D's superheated from the plate meter on the peg. That was the last Bob used that rig. He switched to a Collins 32V instead.

Funny you mention all of that, I'm currently in Tulsa right now. Oh, the humanity humidity!

Anyway, I went out in my mom and dads garage and I still have lots of leftover junk from those days (70's) See attached pics below, Meissner Signal Shifter, Varmit XL-150, Pig-Pole plate to power an 813, 811's or 812's, Chassis's, Signal Generator, NC-173 chassis, etc. Lots of other junk out there too like mod transformers, power transformers, etc. When I came and retrieved my equipment from storage back in 2008 I also stopped by the house, but had to leave this other junk here. There wasn't enough room in the U-Haul truck for it. Also just found a few boxes of HRO parts.

We are going to lake Skiatook Friday with an old radio buddy and will watch the firworks then fly back to San Jose Saturday morning.

Just found one of my old 30B transceivers in my mom and dads garage as well. I think this was one I used for a parts unit, but I can remember. The 1970's was just too long ago I worked Bob and the other guys on 10-meters from one of those for years into Varmint sweep-tube linears. The big XL-1000 is also still out there, but its buried under a bunch of other stuff along with a Sonar FS-23. I think the XL-1000 eventually went bad though because of the 30 watts of drive into it, but again it was too long ago to remember. I had a trick where I would turn the 3 element Yagi away from Bob in the opposite direction then crank up the XL-1000 with the rcvr preamp enabled. That worked great during back-scatter propagation \

Anyway, I also found some Loran and ADF stuff. Attached below are pics of the control boxes, but I also have the receivers. I could probably use them for a 630-meter setup someday.

Update: I just found another one I had put away in a box. It's an old International Crystal Mfg transceiver from 1962. I searched around and found the manual for it online.

Anyway, its an old Executive model 50A with 3 channel xmit and an all channel receiver via a built in tuner. It also has a place for 2 receive xtals as well. I think someone gave this to me many years ago and it was still new and unused at the time. I must have moved the mic jack to the front, but never finished it because it's still setup for the CB band. I plugged it in and turned it on and it works fine.

I may drag this one home for use on 10-meter this winter. It has the squelch control so I can just leave it on

I too left behind many items at my parents house when I flew the coup at the age of 20 I moved from Michigan (I was WB8PEP), and moved to Texas. That was nearly 40 years ago now. I got most of the items before the folks passed on. Some things disappeared like a box of 801 tubes that were never found.

The time will come when all that stuff will have to be dealt with fast, when the folks are gone, and the home base gets sold. My older brother had to deal with this. I had a walk through the house taking a few items here and there. The rest went to an estate sale. Sometimes I think I grew up a little when the last parent passed.

Back to topic. Ozona Bob went off the air for the most part when his XYL Joyce passed. She was the rock that kept the family together. Sometime later Bob went to the Ozona newspaper office where Scotty K5SPE owned the newspaper business there, and Bob proceeded to make copies of some documents. Bob had his heart attack there. He collapsed and hit his head hard on a desk before falling to the floor. W5PYT became a SK that day.

Scotty has a lot of Bob's gear. That Globe King 400 that I modified, and then melted down is just one of the rigs that Scotty owns. Scotty is active on 3890 AM with his HB 833 rig, and a converted BC transmitter.

There used to be some audio recordings on the net of Bob. I wonder if any remain?

While looking for recordings I found this, a tribute to Bob written by Bill K5LLK (SK) in 1998:

Yeah, I remember the night when Scotty came on the air when Bob had his heart attack and announced he had died that day. Scotty said he didn't know CPR nor did anyone else in the office and by the time help arrived it was too late.

Anyway, after that I started getting ready for the next 10-meter cycle (cycle 23 in the late 90's) and when it finally did start I had people like George, W1GAC ask me what had happened to Bob so I wound up repeating the story several times before moving to California. He and Bob had talked about and planned for years to go to some remote location (an island I think) and set up a station sort of like an expedition, but life kept getting in the way until old age finally set in, but they kept planning it nevertheless. I have forgtten exactly where it was they were planning on going together. Unfortunately Bob was dead by the time cycle 23 started.

There's a lot of stuff like that many didn't know about Bob. Many Hams have always had a bad attitude regarding the higher HF bands and they limited themselves to only working on 160, 75 and 40-meters. Bob was very active on 10-meters and it was a whole different world especially back in those days. The others missed out on that due to their ignorance.

Oh, the old Meissner Signal Shifter's cabinet would make a great cabinet for my T-368 exciter. I'm thinking about taking it home and using it for that. A can of Rust-Oleum grey paint would make it look great and it would be all shielded and there's enough room for the supply in there too

I think most everyone has had a Meissner Signal Shifter at some point or another, right?

I think most everyone has had a Meissner Signal Shifter at some point or another, right?

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I never did have one of those. I did have a McMurdo Silver exciter that took a 160m VFO, and a slug of metal 6L6's to make 80-10M. The final was an 807. That thing was totally unshielded, and spurs everywhere. Sadly I scrapped it.

While looking for W5PYT memorabilia, I found an old email I sent out to the AM Reflector. Here it is:

Back in 1985 Ozonna Bob, W5PYT gave me a bag of 3cx100A5's (improved 2C39).
These were hi-mu UHF light house triodes with a 100 watt plate dissipation.
At the same time I was running 80M AM mobile with a Yaesu FT-757 at 25
watts. I was really in need of an amplifier, and my goal was 200 watts AM
(carrier output) with 800-1000 watts PEP available. I came across some GE
dynamotors that took 14v @46 amps, and made 515v @ 215ma and 1030v @ 260 ma
at the same time. OK, so here is my B+ supply using 515 for 'TUNE' and 1030
for 'OPERATE'. Then I started working with a single 3cx100a5 with water
cooling.

I never got past the tube in a Tupperware full of water, but the DC
conditions were right, and the cooling worked well. Then two things
happened: My 12v supply broke, and I started courting the damsel I later
married and who has been my XYL for over 20 years. [Update, 29 years!]

I never got back to that project. I do however still believe my goals for
the 80 M mobile set up would have worked, and provided one stout AM mobile
signal.

I also stumbled on a more recent picture of Bob in front of his Viking I. On a visit to New Mexico, Tim Wa1HLR stopped by at Bob's and while visiting he did some audio mods to that Viking I. Bob loved that rig, and used it quite a bit. A 100 watts of AM into that big Turnstile really put out a signal. I post that photo here.

I also stumbled on a more recent picture of Bob in front of his Viking I. On a visit to New Mexico, Tim Wa1HLR stopped by at Bob's and while visiting he did some audio mods to that Viking I. Bob loved that rig, and used it quite a bit. A 100 watts of AM into that big Turnstile really put out a signal. I post that photo here.

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That was one of the BW pics which appeared in ER magazine. The one you attached was that issue's cover.

I think most everyone has had a Meissner Signal Shifter at some point or another, right?

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WD5JKO said:

I never did have one of those. I did have a McMurdo Silver exciter that took a 160m VFO, and a slug of metal 6L6's to make 80-10M. The final was an 807. That thing was totally unshielded, and spurs everywhere. Sadly I scrapped it.

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The Meissner Signal Shifters were a quick way to drive an RF deck or just use by themselves into a 50-ohm antenna. They had an 807 too including the magic eye tube. You could even build a small modulator for use on AM.

Below is a pic of my old one. I just pulled it out of the cabinet so I can use the cabinet for my T-368 exciter. I may need to box it up with the International CB inside wrapped up in bubble wrap and have my dad just ship it. Not sure I want to take it on the plane.

HLR Tim is still active almost daily and I run into him often 10-75 on AM. The Lazy H between the 300' SWBC towers on the mountain works on all bands and opens/closes them. His 75 mobile signal is stronger than many home stations; I believe it is a 4D32 final with great audio punch.

HLR Tim is still active almost daily and I run into him often 10-75 on AM. The Lazy H between the 300' SWBC towers on the mountain works on all bands and opens/closes them. His 75 mobile signal is stronger than many home stations; I believe it is a 4D32 final with great audio punch.

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I heard him a lot last winter on 10 and 15-meters, but more often on 15-meters I think. I think he also gets on 17-meters too, but my BC-348 which just barley gets there wasn't operational then so I don't know for certain. The NC-303 is an old ham bands only receiver so no 17-meters. I didn't bother trying one of my HRO's with the coil switched to the GC position.

I need to try and make my HB transmitter work on 17-meters. The T-368 exciter will do it, but my plate band switch inductor doesn't have the position. I really don't care for 20-meters so I may just modify that tap for 17-meters or modify the 15-meter position instead. I may have trouble though because I designed it for the low bands only so the minimun "C" may be too great. I know it wont work on 10 and 15-meters and 17-meters will be a real borderline stretch

That is an idea, I could just use the 1.25-meter dial. That's something for on down the road. Right now the BC-348 will do it if you dial it past 18Mc. It does tune up past it, but no dial markers up that high. The other thing is when its on another band and you go to change you have to crank the tuning knob about a billion times to get it there. It's like cranking the landing gear up and down on a P-51

I can still remember back when Bob and George (GAC) would have their QSO's sometimes for hours and hours on 10-meters. It was usually a one sided QSO on my receiving end though until the backscatter flutter started as the sun set during the early evening hours. Then I could hear Bob. I still wish I could remember where it was they were planning on going together to do that expedition they always talked about. It was either an island or the place nutcase K1MAN made all of the fuss about back when they had that earthquake. If not it may have been a similar location.